State Rep Requests National Guard Help to Stop Chicago Violence

Gun violence in Chicago is so severe that a state lawmaker wants state police and the National Guard to assist the local cops. State Rep. Monique Davis (D-Chicago) is making the request.

“I am requesting with this press conference that Gov. Patrick Quinn order the Illinois National Guard (and) the Illinois State Police (to) come to Chicago and work with our mayor Ron (sic) Emanuel to provide safety for the children, especially,” she said at a news conference in Springfield.

Other state lawmakers accompanied Davis to recognize the severity of the problem, and the extent to which it carries beyond Chicago’s troubled neighborhoods to the entire city and other parts of the state, but not necessarily to concur with her solution.

Over the holiday weekend, 74 people were shot and 12 killed in Chicago, and Davis says the police don’t have the manpower to make arrests. Read more >>

Minnesota’s pension plans underfunded by $16.7 billion

Minnesota’s public pension plans for government employees are underfunded by $16.7 billion — a deficit that’s $4 billion larger than it was when lawmakers took steps to fix the problem in 2010.

The underfunded pensions aren’t a reason for alarm, experts say, but they say it is a problem that 11 of the state’s 12 public pension plans open to new members don’t have enough money coming in to cover promised benefits. Plans for state troopers, public safety workers, and local police and firefighters are among those with the largest gaps. Lawmakers will consider changes to those plans this year.

“Is there a need for concern? Yes,” said Larry Martin, executive director of Minnesota’s Legislative Commission of Pensions and Retirement. “We’re departing — significantly — from what we think we ought to be doing.”

The commission released the numbers last month. The figures are current through last June 30. The plans pay for retirement for more than 729,000 current and retired state and local government workers and pay out about $3.8 billion in benefits annually. Read more >>